Difficult time for a fellow ephemera collector in the Netherlands

Among the many great people who take the time to comment on Papergreat is Gejus van Diggele, who lives in the Netherlands. He is a collector and researcher of used playing cards and World War II era games and puzzles.

I have only written about playing cards a few times. And when Gejus stumbled upon this September 2012 post about a playing card used as a bookmark, it turned out that I had hit upon one of his true passions. On April 1, he wrote:

"Much to my delight you finally discovered a subject that is fascinating me since 1994: secondary use of playing cards. The Ace of Clubs you did find in a book was simply used as a page marker. The kind of card (Ace) has no special meaning. Probably it was just a left over card from an incomplete deck. As from the 15th century left over playing cards have been used for about everything one can do with paper. My collection of over 4,300 reused playing cards, dating from late 1400 until present, cover over 300 forms of secondary use."

Gejus also mentioned his Pinterest board about secondary uses of playing card, which you can see here. He has accumulated a fascinating collection, and he has only posted the tip of the iceberg on Pinterest. My favorites include a playing card used as a postcard (of course) and the front and back of a playing card used as an obituary notice in 1803.

After his April 1 comment, we exchanged some emails and I invited Gejus to write a guest post for Papergreat about playing cards.

Then I didn't hear from him for a month.

Then came the terrible news: Fire had devastated his 17th century farmhouse and surrounding buildings.

"Fortunately humans, animals, computers and most of the collections could be saved in time," Gejus wrote.

It will take 12-to-18 months to restore the farmhouse, he added.

I'm still trying to figure out what I can do as a gesture of support for this fellow ephemeraologist during a tough time for his whole family. Here's one small thing we can all do — go to his Pinterest board and comment with your support on one of his posted images. I hope it will mean a little something to Gejus to know that we're thinking of him.

Two more 19th century cabinet cards from Reading, Pennsylvania

On the heels of Papergreat's May 8 post — "How a gentleman should properly pose himself in a fake setting" — here are two more 19th century cabinet cards (probably circa 1890) from separate photographers in Reading, Pennsylvania.

This first one is from the New York Gallery, which was featured the other day. It shows a man and a woman (presumably they are husband and wife) and there are no identifications anywhere on the photograph.



This second cabinet card is from Strunk, Artistic Photographer, who was located at 730 Penn Street in Reading.¹ In this one, we again find the man in a chair and the woman standing next to him. And, again, there are no identifications scrawled anywhere on the front or back.



The backs of the cards are also quite ornate. You can click on the image below to see greater detail.



Footnote
1. This photographer's full name was John D. Strunk, and you can browse numerous other (fabulous) cabinet cards that he produced on The Cabinet Card Gallery.

Two Pennsylvania postcards: Shohola and Mauch Chunk

Related post: 10 great Pennsylvania postcards

I have two vintage Pennsylvania postcards for you this morning.

First up is this postcard of a man and his dog that pictures Shohola. The note on the front of the card states: "Dear Etta - Here for the day & it is raining like mad. Dot."

The card was mailed in 1906. There are three postmarks, for some reason. The stamp has a faded 1906 postmark from Shohola. And there are two Brooklyn, New York, postmarks — one from 3:30 p.m. on May 28, 1906, and one from 5 p.m. on May 28, 1906.

The card is addressed to Miss Etta Flower of 790 Classon Avenue in Brooklyn.

Shohola Township is a small municipality within Pike County along the border in northeastern Pennsylvania. It was a historically significant location for sawmills, dams and bridges.

Unfortunately, the township has also been the site of at least a dozen major railroad accidents. The worst was The Great Shohola Train Wreck in July 1864, which resulted in at least 60 deaths. The dead, according to Wikipedia, were buried in unmarked graves next to the track, where they remained until 1911, when they were moved to the Woodlawn National Cemetery in Elmira, New York.

Recreationally, Shohola Township had the Shohola Glen Amusement Park from 1886 until 1907. Today, it is home of Lake Owego Camp for Boys and Camp Shohola for Boys.

For more about Shohola Township, check out the Shohola Area Historical Information Web Page.

* * *


This postcard features Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, "from the mountain road."

The name Stanley is written on the front. The back of the card was postmarked twice — at 8:30 a.m. on September 4, 1906, and at 7 a.m. on September 5, 1906, in Millbury, Massachusetts. It is addressed to Miss Lotta Ferguson of Millbury.

Mauch Chunk is now, of course, call Jim Thorpe and is the home of that famous athlete's remains. But maybe not for long. A federal judge recently ruled that Thorpe’s two surviving sons had the right under American Indian ancestral law to move his remains back to Oklahoma, where Thorpe was raised. What that would mean for the town's name remains unclear.

For more on Mauch Chunk/Jim Thorpe, see this homeschooling/travel guide on Our School at Home.

Footnote
1. Shohola is the Lenape word for "Place of Peace."